Relatively new. I was disappointed when I 1st started playing that my shield didn't do anything offensively when all my MMO's in the past had at least a shield bash. Wound up taking Shieldmaster and had a lot of fun with it. But now competes with other things for bonus action. I'd like to see Shield gain new passive properties I've heard about for weapons. Something like a reaction on a miss akin to BM riposte, to cause improvised weapon damage. I'd also like to be able to restrain a creature with my shield against a wall or to ground when prone. Having a free arm to grapple makes no sense if you can crush a creature with a door size board between another object. Speaking of door size boards, it would be nice to get different grades of shields, from light (bucklers) +1 AC to Heavy (tower) +3 AC. I'm aware of indestructoboy's Vindicator class that features a Tower shield which provides 1/2 cover to nearby creatures. I thought it was a neat idea. Should be another avenue for a Fighter Fighting Style to provide support. I can even see more Maneuvers around shield to support this playstyle, Like a Brace for range that acts off another reaction to negate certain range attacks. Drive...pushes a creature even further like a Monk's 15ft shove. So much untapped potential around shields. It should be way more then a stat stick!
Shield Master in One no longer needs your bonus action, so that should solve the main issue you have with it. Also it's going to be a half-feat, which is a pretty significant buff.
Interestingly, they removed the "add your shield bonus to Dex saves" part of the feat. I'm wondering if that's going to be accessible some other way.
I like the idea of a +3 Tower Shield that counts as/requires Heavy Armor Training and doesn't let you benefit from Dex. Wording that would be tricky though.
Relatively new. I was disappointed when I 1st started playing that my shield didn't do anything offensively when all my MMO's in the past had at least a shield bash. Wound up taking Shieldmaster and had a lot of fun with it. But now competes with other things for bonus action. I'd like to see Shield gain new passive properties I've heard about for weapons. Something like a reaction on a miss akin to BM riposte, to cause improvised weapon damage. I'd also like to be able to restrain a creature with my shield against a wall or to ground when prone. Having a free arm to grapple makes no sense if you can crush a creature with a door size board between another object. Speaking of door size boards, it would be nice to get different grades of shields, from light (bucklers) +1 AC to Heavy (tower) +3 AC. I'm aware of indestructoboy's Vindicator class that features a Tower shield which provides 1/2 cover to nearby creatures. I thought it was a neat idea. Should be another avenue for a Fighter Fighting Style to provide support. I can even see more Maneuvers around shield to support this playstyle, Like a Brace for range that acts off another reaction to negate certain range attacks. Drive...pushes a creature even further like a Monk's 15ft shove. So much untapped potential around shields. It should be way more then a stat stick!
Shield Master in One no longer needs your bonus action, so that should solve the main issue you have with it. Also it's going to be a half-feat, which is a pretty significant buff.
Interestingly, they removed the "add your shield bonus to Dex saves" part of the feat. I'm wondering if that's going to be accessible some other way.
I like the idea of a +3 Tower Shield that counts as/requires Heavy Armor Training and doesn't let you benefit from Dex. Wording that would be tricky though.
I'm all for giving weapons (and shields) interesting traits to differentiate them and make martial combat more interesting.
Shields gaining the Shove Bonus Action as standard would be awesome.
Bucklers could be shields that only provide AC +1 but count as a 1d4 B Light weapon.
Tower Shields as mentioned could be AC +3 but Heavy (sidenote: Heavy should totally still be a 13 Str restriction for ranged weapons, not Dex).
I also personally think raising a shield should be a Reaction but that's a personal taste thing.
The problem here is that now you're forcing longbow rangers dex fighters, hexbows, kensei monks etc to need 13 Str where they didn't before.
Personally I would have just preferred they stuck with the size limit, or at least make it so that Small PCs need 13 Str to use those weapons.